CNN's John Berman challenged a Republican congressman's justification for launching a U.S. military strike on Iran.
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) argued that lawmakers should make the decision on joining Israel's campaign against Iran, but he justified taking military action by telling "CNN News Central" that the U.S. was essentially already at war with the Middle Eastern nation.
"I agree, the immediate threat is not there to America, but realize they've called us the 'great Satan,' Israel is the 'little Satan,' and by the way, if Israel can take care of the job, by all means let Israel take care of the job," McCormick said. "Even if we have to supply the weapons to do so, I'd rather not be involved directly. But if there are no other options and Iran will not come to the table, they will not disarm their nuclear program and they continue to threaten both our lives abroad as well as our allies abroad, they leave us with really no options because they have been at war with us, whether we realize it or not."
Berman was dubious.
"You keep saying that they've been at war, whether we realize it or not," Berman said.
The CNN host then pointed to a social media post by former GOP congressman Justin Amash, who said there's no plausible argument to justify president Donald Trump unilaterally deciding to launch offensive strikes against Iran because Congress hadn't declared war, as the Constitution requires, and McCormick agreed.
"I would love to see Congress vote," McCormick said. "Actually, I think that's the best thing for us moving forward, because we haven't done that since World War II. Realize we've been in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan without voting on war. This has been a problem with the usurping of basically authority from Congress on multiple levels for a very long time. I'd like to see Congress grab back the representation."
However, the lawmaker indicated that he would vote in favor of an attack.
"I understand the angst over this, and I don't have all the information that both Israel and the president have that they're acting on right now," he said. "But what I do know is that we have been attacked overseas, we've been, we've had American troops, including Georgians, killed by weapons produced by Tehran and distributed to the Houthis, to Hezbollah, to Hamas, to other terrorist organizations around the world. They are our enemies constantly, and they're producing weapons not to harm anybody other than people that we are aligned with."
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